Audit Committee
Minutes of proceedings 29 January 2025
Audit Committee minutes of proceedings 29 January 2025.pdf (150.14 kb)
Meeting Location: The Senate Chamber, Parliament Buildings
Present:
Alan Chambers MLA (Chairperson)
Diane Forsythe MLA (Deputy Chairperson)
John Blair MLA
Ciara Ferguson MLA
Nick Mathison MLA
Present by video or teleconference:
Ciara Ferguson MLA
In Attendance:
Nick Mitford, Assembly Clerk
Shane McAteer, Assembly Clerk
Elaine Farrell, Assistant Clerk
Laura Gourley, Clerical Supervisor
Rachel Keyes, Assembly Research Officer (item 5)
Rebecca Ellis, Assembly Legal Advisor (item 6)
The meeting commenced at 10.04 a.m. in open session
1. Apologies
None.
2. Declaration of Interests
None.
3. Draft Minutes
Agreed: The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 13 November 2024.
4. Matters arising
None.
5. RaISe Briefing – Relevant budget scrutiny processes in neighbouring jurisdictions in relation to their corporate bodies
The Assembly Research Officer, Rachel Keyes, joined the meeting at 10.06 a.m.
The Research Officer briefed the Committee and this was followed by a question and answer session.
Agreed: The Committee agreed to write to stakeholders, including the NIO, NIPSO, NIAC to seek their views on potential changes that would see the Audit Committee extend its role to codify their respective budgets.
Agreed: The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish and Welsh legislatures to seek information on how the codification process works in practice in relation to their corporate bodies.
Agreed: The Committee agreed to move the meeting into closed session
The meeting moved into closed session at 10.22 a.m.
6. Legal Advice on codifying the Audit Committee’s role in relation to the scrutiny of the draft budgets for NIAO, NIPSO and NIAC
The Assembly Legal Advisor, Rebecca Ellis, joined the meeting at 10.23 a.m.
The Legal Advisor briefed the Committee and this was followed by a question and answer session.
Agreed: The Committee agreed to write to the NIAO, NIPSO, NIAC and DoF to seek their views on any potential changes that would result in the Audit Committee codifying their respective budgets.
7. C &AG salary arrangements
The Committee Clerk briefed the Committee on the current C&AG salary arrangements and the arrangements for comparable cases.
Agreed: The Committee agreed that Terms of Reference for a future review of the options for determining the C &AG’s salary in the future will be considered at a forthcoming meeting of the Committee.
Mr Blair left the meeting at 11.12 a.m.
8. Northern Ireland Public Service Ombudsman (NIPSO) briefing on the Pay and Grading Exercise
The following officials from NIPSO joined the meeting at 11.12 a.m.
Margaret Kelly, Ombudsman
Sean Martin, Acting Deputy Ombudsman
Kirsty McCool, Director of Governance and Support Services
The officials briefed the Committee and this was followed by a question and answer session.
Mr Blair rejoined the meeting at 11.18 a.m.
The Chairperson thanked the officials for their briefing.
9. Correspondence
Noted: The Committee noted the following items of correspondence:
I. Correspondence dated 24 October 2024 from the Committee for Finance on the Budget 2025/26 and Future Years Information Gathering.
II. Correspondence dated 26 November 2024 from RaISe on a briefing paper on the Chancellor’s Budget: Initial considerations for Northern Ireland.
III. Correspondence dated 23 January 2025 from the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) on the January Monitoring 2024/25.
IV. Correspondence dated 23 January 2025 from the NIAO inviting the Committee to visit their premises.
V. Correspondence dated 27 January 2025 from the Committee for Finance on the budget 2025/25 round robin exercise.
10. Any other business
There was no other business
11. Date, Time and Place of the next meeting
The next meeting of the Audit Committee will take place on 19 February 2025 at 10.00 a.m. in Room 21 Parliament Buildings.
The meeting was adjourned at 11.28 a.m.
Alan Chambers MLA
Chairperson, Audit Committee
5 March 2025
